All posts tagged Kate Beckett

‘Castle,’ Season 4, Episode 1, Season Premiere: TV Recap

We ended the last season of “Castle” with a classic cliffhanger: Beckett was shot by a sniper at Captain Montgomery’s funeral. Castle had tried to knock her out of the way when he saw what was happening, but he wasn’t successful. As Beckett lay bleeding, Castle confessed his love for her.

The season premiere picked up exactly where it left off. Beckett is being frantically rushed into surgery. She is slipping away. We are taken back and forth between the operating room and the hallway where everyone has gathered.

In surgery, Beckett’s boyfriend Josh has to start the surgery to save her life despite protests from around the table. “You can’t operate on her, she’s your girlfriend.” To which Josh responds, “She’s dying.” And then he cuts in to stop her bleeding.

Outside in the hallway, Beckett’s father, Castle’s daughter wait. Josh, relieved by another surgeon, comes out of surgery and slams Castle into the wall, blaming him for forcing Beckett to investigate her mother’s death. Back in the room Beckett flat lines.

Castle admits, “I put her on the crosshairs.”

Meanwhile, an envelope is pulled out of a mailbox with the name Smith on it. Montgomery sent it before he was shot. Castle’s pictures, a news article about Beckett’s shooting and some other paperwork are inside and once Smith read’s it all, he places a call to someone who is high up in government.

Beckett doesn’t really flat line. She pulls through. Castle visits Beckett in the hospital while she’s recovering. He says, “I just never thought I’d see again.” Followed by “I heard you were opening a flower shop so I thought I’d pitch in.”

Jokes aside, he quickly realizes Beckett doesn’t remember anything about the day she was shot, including his confession of love. She says, “There are some things better not being remembered.” Not that it matters because Beckett tells Castle to leave. She tells him she’ll call him. But she doesn’t.

Then, with the magic of TV, it is three months later, Beckett returns to work, still not having contacted Castle. She learns Castle had worked tirelessly to figure out who shot her and that the new captain, Captain Victoria Gates (who prefers to be call sir) kicked Castle to the curb anyway. Castle has taken the files home so he can continue working on finding Beckett’s shooter.

Beckett gets into it with the new captain because her case has been closed and because she has to retrain to get her gun back even though she did okay on her psych examine. With no leads on her shooter the captain said it was a waste of time to keep pursuing.

Beckett finally decides to connect with Castle so she catches up with him at a book signing. He is furious she had let three months go by without a call, explaining that it was painful to watch her die on the ambulance, and then recover. He is angry, but softens when Beckett said she needed to work through some things.

“Did Josh help you with that?”

“We broke up.”

After some small talk, Beckett reveals she built up a wall inside after her mother’s death. She tells Castle she needs to put the murder to rest in order to have the kind of relationship she wants. Castle tells her he’s still mad, but says they will figure it out. He softly changes the subject and tells her he’s been working on the money trail to find her killer, but has no leads. He promises to get reinstated by Gates.

He goes around Gates to get back into the squad, having called his pal the mayor to pull strings. Gates is not happy. She threatens to bury Beckett if she ever lets Castle embarrass her again.

The team is in the middle of connecting some dots on a warehouse fire deemed accidental that might lead to some clues on Beckett’s mother murder, when Gates sends them all out on another lead. Becket is back in the saddle, but clearly isn’t ready. After a chase she hesitates to raise her weapon when faced with one pointing at her. Her hand is shaking and Esposito and Ryan come in and take down the bad guy before anything happens.

Back at the station, Castle confronts her on freezing and the shaky hand. She says it won’t happen again. The two of them go and talk to the fire investigator about the warehouse fire that might lead to her shooter. He insists the report is accurate. Beckett flips out and accuses the investigator of lying, and being pressured to falsify a report. He throws them both out of the fire station.

She and Castle go to her home to review the files and they disagree on the fire investigators guilt and the cause of the fire. Beckett can’t accept this because it would mean she has no leads in her mother’s murder.

After they part, Castle gets a call from someone claiming to be a friend of Montgomery’s. Presumably the high-placed official silenced by Montgomery’s mail. He’s got the envelope’s contents spread out in front of him.

“We need to talk.”

Here’s the crux of that call: the contents of that envelope are so damaging to people in high places that they ensure the safety of Montgomery’s family. Beckett was shot at the funeral because that envelope arrived late. She’s safe now and won’t be targeted again, as long as Beckett doesn’t pursue the case any further.

Castle decides to not mention the call to Beckett and instead decides to work to steer her away from the case. He convinces her to take a break until she feels better.

Beckett focuses on the killing of a debutant instead, that they thought had already been solved. She figures out who the killer is, which is not the guy in custody. This time, when they chase the suspect down Beckett doesn’t hesitate and she faces the second gun barrel of the show. This time she prevails and cuffs the suspect.

“We’ll figure it out. That wall inside won’t be there forever,” says Castle as they part.

And just when you think its over, the last few minutes of the show set up the season to come. Castle has, for the time being convinced Beckett to stop pursuing the case, but he is clearly still looking into finding her sniper. And Beckett, in an appointment with her shrink, acknowledges she actually remembers everything from the day she was shot.

Why do you think she lied to Castle about not hearing him say, “I love you”?

After narrowly surviving the gunshot she suffered in the Season 3 finale, Beckett (Stana Katic) tells Castle (Nathan Fillion) that she doesn’t remember anything from the day she was shot — including the fact that Castle told Beckett he loved her. But in the premiere’s final moments, Beckett confesses to her police-mandated shrink (Michael Dorn) that she she’s been lying about her faulty memory.

But why? “She’s scared to admit that she heard him because she’s scared that the relationship is going to go to the next level and it could potentially ruin their friendship,” creator and executive producer Andrew W. Marlowe tells TVGuide.com. “She wants it but she’s not ready for it.”

However, Beckett, who is clearly still a bit shaken up from her brush with death, is able to admit that she wants to work toward a relationship with Castle — after she finally closes her mother’s murder investigation, which set this whole deadly chain of events in motion.

“Beckett is struggling with some internal things that she really needs to put to rest,” Marlowe says. “She intimates that she wants Castle, but she wants it to be a real relationship. She knows she’s not as open and available as she wants to be in life, but she knows it’s for a particular reason. So, if they can resolve Beckett’s mother’s case, that [removes] one of their biggest obstacles.”

That’s where things get really sticky. Although Castle wants nothing more than to help Beckett crack the case, he’s got one problem: A mystery man (Geoff Pierson) with knowledge of Beckett’s investigation warns Castle that if she continues digging, she will certainly end up dead.

“Castle is in this terribly conflicted position,” Marlowe says. “It ends up being a huge sacrifice for Castle to ask Beckett to back off, because he’s actually asking her to back off of the relationship.”

Adds Fillion: “If she solves the investigation, she’s saying she can be emotionally ready for a relationship with Castle. But if she delves into this investigation, she will be killed. That’s very real. If you balance that with, ‘Well, I might have a chance at dating her,’ it doesn’t really weigh out. He can’t take that chance.”

Marlowe says that Castle will continue to try to solve Beckett’s mother’s murder on his own in order to protect Beckett. Meanwhile, look for Beckett’s shrink to return at least a couple more times to offer a peek into Beckett’s head (and heart).

The bright side, Marlowe says, is that even though they’re not technically an item, their relationship is stronger than ever. “For all the people who keep saying, ‘When are they going to get in a relationship?’ they kind of already are,” he says. “It just comes with baggage and complications. [These] are two people who we deep down know love each other but there’s some significant secrets and significant obstacles that make it not the right time for them at this moment.”

And if those secrets are revealed? “[It’s] a powder keg,” Marlowe says. “Either of those things can be a real ticking bomb in their relationship. So, there’s a little bit of a delicate dance for the characters.”

Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

What did you think of the premiere? Are you interested in the new dynamic between Castle and Beckett?

Castle Season 4: What Happens After “I Love You”?

That’s the question looming over Castle, as the Season 4 premiere (Monday, 10/c, ABC) focuses heavily on how Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) will react to a profession of love from her mystery-writer/partner, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), in last season’s finale. Of course, Castle’s “I love you” didn’t come over a candlelight dinner, but in the aftermath of Beckett being gunned down by a sniper. So, there are plenty of easy outs, right?

“My goals were to honor everything that we had done in the season finale and not sweep anything under the carpet,” creator and executive producer Andrew W. Marlowe tells TVGuide.com. “My intent was to confront all the issues that we brought up and deal with them in a way that … was going to be both satisfying to fans and also a little bit frustrating for the ones who want Castle and Beckett to get back right away. We’ve taken their relationship to the next level of complexity. … [There’s] a lot more meaning in the Beckett and Castle relationship.”

Adds executive producer Laurie Zaks: “Once the genie is let out of the bottle, it can’t be put back in. Even if it’s not acknowledged verbally, psychologically there’s going to be a difference.”

It’s in those psychological and emotional corners of the story that things get a bit tricky. For example: Will Castle even be able to see past his own complicity in Beckett’s shooting — and by extension, the sacrificial death of former Capt. Roy Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) — to move forward in a relationship with her?

“It was a very sobering event for Castle. Certainly he carries a measure of guilt,” Fillion says. “Here’s a guy who’s not very keen to grow up anytime soon. But he’s really been spear-heading this investigation. He’s been kicking this hornet’s nest around, thinking that solving it will get him closer to Beckett. But now he’s losing friends, literally. It’s going to force him to grow up a little.”

Also standing in the way of Castle and Beckett’s possible love connection is a decrease in face time, now that new Victoria “Iron” Gates (Penny Johnson Jerald) has assumed command of the 12th Precinct and promptly kicked Castle out.

“He’s not used to women being around him that aren’t disarmed by him immediately,” Fillion says. “Women love him, and when they don’t, he takes it really hard. … She won’t give him half a chance. Even when he deserves credit, she will not give it to him. That really bothers him, and it’s going to be a continuing battle.”

But the true obstacle preventing a Castle-Beckett hookup is secrecy, as both Beckett and Castle will be forced to hide significant information from each other at the beginning of the season.

“Everybody’s got secrets this year,” Katic says. “The first episode kind of explains how this next season will be directed. It explains in a really subtle way how the two characters feel about each other and what obstacles they might have to tackle in order to finally get to each other. I think it’s really sweet.”

Sweet, if not immediately satisfying to the show’s ravenous fans. Katic can only promise that Beckett, who will also share some her feelings with a police-mandated shrink (Star Trek: The Next Generation‘sMichael Dorn) this season, is acting in the interest of her long-term happiness.

“She’s making an adult decision not to dive into something because she doesn’t want to screw it up,” Katic says. ” She has real, adult reasons for making the choices she makes. … She cares for him so much. She’s in love with him. She’s dated other guys, but he’s the only guy she’s been in love with.”

After narrowly surviving the gunshot she suffered in the Season 3 finale, Beckett (Stana Katic) tells Castle (Nathan Fillion) that she doesn’t remember anything from the day she was shot — including the fact that Castle told Beckett he loved her. But in the premiere’s final moments, Beckett confesses to her police-mandated shrink (Michael Dorn) that she she’s been lying about her faulty memory.

But why? “She’s scared to admit that she heard him because she’s scared that the relationship is going to go to the next level and it could potentially ruin their friendship,” creator and executive producer Andrew W. Marlowe tells TVGuide.com. “She wants it but she’s not ready for it.”

However, Beckett, who is clearly still a bit shaken up from her brush with death, is able to admit that she wants to work toward a relationship with Castle — after she finally closes her mother’s murder investigation, which set this whole deadly chain of events in motion.

“Beckett is struggling with some internal things that she really needs to put to rest,” Marlowe says. “She intimates that she wants Castle, but she wants it to be a real relationship. She knows she’s not as open and available as she wants to be in life, but she knows it’s for a particular reason. So, if they can resolve Beckett’s mother’s case, that [removes] one of their biggest obstacles.”

That’s where things get really sticky. Although Castle wants nothing more than to help Beckett crack the case, he’s got one problem: A mystery man (Geoff Pierson) with knowledge of Beckett’s investigation warns Castle that if she continues digging, she will certainly end up dead.

“Castle is in this terribly conflicted position,” Marlowe says. “It ends up being a huge sacrifice for Castle to ask Beckett to back off, because he’s actually asking her to back off of the relationship.”

Adds Fillion: “If she solves the investigation, she’s saying she can be emotionally ready for a relationship with Castle. But if she delves into this investigation, she will be killed. That’s very real. If you balance that with, ‘Well, I might have a chance at dating her,’ it doesn’t really weigh out. He can’t take that chance.”

Marlowe says that Castle will continue to try to solve Beckett’s mother’s murder on his own in order to protect Beckett. Meanwhile, look for Beckett’s shrink to return at least a couple more times to offer a peek into Beckett’s head (and heart).

The bright side, Marlowe says, is that even though they’re not technically an item, their relationship is stronger than ever. “For all the people who keep saying, ‘When are they going to get in a relationship?’ they kind of already are,” he says. “It just comes with baggage and complications. [These] are two people who we deep down know love each other but there’s some significant secrets and significant obstacles that make it not the right time for them at this moment.”

And if those secrets are revealed? “[It’s] a powder keg,” Marlowe says. “Either of those things can be a real ticking bomb in their relationship. So, there’s a little bit of a delicate dance for the characters.”

Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

What did you think of the premiere? Are you interested in the new dynamic between Castle and Beckett?

Castle Season 4: What Happens After “I Love You”?

That’s the question looming over Castle, as the Season 4 premiere (Monday, 10/c, ABC) focuses heavily on how Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) will react to a profession of love from her mystery-writer/partner, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), in last season’s finale. Of course, Castle’s “I love you” didn’t come over a candlelight dinner, but in the aftermath of Beckett being gunned down by a sniper. So, there are plenty of easy outs, right?

“My goals were to honor everything that we had done in the season finale and not sweep anything under the carpet,” creator and executive producer Andrew W. Marlowe tells TVGuide.com. “My intent was to confront all the issues that we brought up and deal with them in a way that … was going to be both satisfying to fans and also a little bit frustrating for the ones who want Castle and Beckett to get back right away. We’ve taken their relationship to the next level of complexity. … [There’s] a lot more meaning in the Beckett and Castle relationship.”

Adds executive producer Laurie Zaks: “Once the genie is let out of the bottle, it can’t be put back in. Even if it’s not acknowledged verbally, psychologically there’s going to be a difference.”

It’s in those psychological and emotional corners of the story that things get a bit tricky. For example: Will Castle even be able to see past his own complicity in Beckett’s shooting — and by extension, the sacrificial death of former Capt. Roy Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) — to move forward in a relationship with her?

“It was a very sobering event for Castle. Certainly he carries a measure of guilt,” Fillion says. “Here’s a guy who’s not very keen to grow up anytime soon. But he’s really been spear-heading this investigation. He’s been kicking this hornet’s nest around, thinking that solving it will get him closer to Beckett. But now he’s losing friends, literally. It’s going to force him to grow up a little.”

Also standing in the way of Castle and Beckett’s possible love connection is a decrease in face time, now that new Victoria “Iron” Gates (Penny Johnson Jerald) has assumed command of the 12th Precinct and promptly kicked Castle out.

“He’s not used to women being around him that aren’t disarmed by him immediately,” Fillion says. “Women love him, and when they don’t, he takes it really hard. … She won’t give him half a chance. Even when he deserves credit, she will not give it to him. That really bothers him, and it’s going to be a continuing battle.”

But the true obstacle preventing a Castle-Beckett hookup is secrecy, as both Beckett and Castle will be forced to hide significant information from each other at the beginning of the season.

“Everybody’s got secrets this year,” Katic says. “The first episode kind of explains how this next season will be directed. It explains in a really subtle way how the two characters feel about each other and what obstacles they might have to tackle in order to finally get to each other. I think it’s really sweet.”

Sweet, if not immediately satisfying to the show’s ravenous fans. Katic can only promise that Beckett, who will also share some her feelings with a police-mandated shrink (Star Trek: The Next Generation‘sMichael Dorn) this season, is acting in the interest of her long-term happiness.

“She’s making an adult decision not to dive into something because she doesn’t want to screw it up,” Katic says. ” She has real, adult reasons for making the choices she makes. … She cares for him so much. She’s in love with him. She’s dated other guys, but he’s the only guy she’s been in love with.”

Castle premieres Monday at 10/9c on ABC.

Exclusive Castle Postmortem: Creator on [SPOILER!]’s Death and Castle and Beckett’s Future

The action-packed final episode found Beckett (Stana Katic) once again drawn into investigating her mother’s murder after Hal Lockwood (Max Martini), the hitman who has killed all her previous leads in the case, escapes from prison. Beckett soon learns that Lockwood’s next target is none other than Captain Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), who was the third cop involved in the kidnapping of a mob boss that ultimately led to Beckett’s mother’s murder.

Mongtomery’s betrayal and cover-up is a hard pill for Beckett to swallow, but ultimately the Captain risks his own life to take down Lockwood and protect Beckett from further harm. One problem: Montgomery dies without revealing the real mystery man who sent Lockwood to kill the conspiring cops in the first place. And that mystery man seems to have hired a new gunman, as in the closing moments of the episode, Beckett is gunned down by a sniper and left bleeding out as Castle (Nathan FIllion) professes his love to her.

If you’re anything like us, you’re still in shock. And you have plenty of questions. (Of course Beckett is going to live, silly!) Luckily, we chatted with Castle creator Andrew W. Marlowe to break it all down. Below in our exclusive interview, Marlowe reveals why the Captain had to die, what the next layer of mythology in the Johanna Beckett case involves, and just how Castle’s admission of love will play out next season.

Why did you decide to kill Captain Montgomery?Andrew W. Marlowe: It grew organically out of the series, out of who he is to Beckett and why he’s been such a mentor [to her]. We realized when we got deeper into Beckett’s mother’s murder mythology that somebody had to be protecting Beckett from herself when she was looking into this, so it made sense that the Captain was involved. It gave us this great sense of completeness and tragedy that I really responded to.

Were you worried that fans might be too jarred by the betrayal?Marlowe: We wanted them to be jarred. Beckett’s jarred. But the reality is we all have secrets and things in our lives we don’t talk about that, when they come to light, we’re forced to deal with. I think there will be some fans who will be frustrated and angry and some fans will be interested in how this will affect Beckett. What’s Beckett’s life going to be like when she doesn’t necessarily always have somebody she works for in her corner?

Captain Montgomery at least got a little bit of redemption.Marlowe: [The whole story] made the character of the Captain much more noble to me. He participated in something that was a sin in his youth, but he had done everything in his life to correct it, to overcome it. He’d done everything to serve and be a good man, but he could not outrun his sins.

So will you be adding a new boss at the precinct next season?Marlowe: That’s one of the opportunities we’re looking to take. Everybody’s getting along really well in the precinct, and we think there can be a little more conflict. We think it’s interesting to grow Beckett and Castle by having somebody who may not look as favorably on Beckett as the Captain did or may not look as favorably on the Castle-Beckett relationship. That’s all stuff we’re plotting out for next year as we speak.

The finale also reveals that there’s still a mystery man out there connected to Johanna Beckett’s murder.Marlowe: We have a great concept of how we want to follow that up in the next couple of seasons. That’s going to be vital in some decisions I’m making going into next season. We foreshadowed it a bit with Castle having to protect Beckett from herself at the end of the episode. Next season, with Castle knowing somebody is out there, [Beckett] becomes his responsibility. It changes the nature of their relationship and makes it significantly more interesting, especially given what happens the last 10 seconds of the show.

Indeed. Let’s talk about that cliff-hanger. Are you prepared for the hate mail?Marlowe: I do have an expectation that certain fans are going to be really, really frustrated. We have really tremendous, loyal fans and to make them wait all those months I think is going to be really frustrating to them. Hopefully people will be interested to see how we deal with it next year. I do think, for the relationship fans, having Castle admit his feelings to Beckett is a great moment for them.

Did Beckett hear and understand Castle say “I love you” before she went unconscious?Marlowe: I think in that moment she does. I know exactly how I’m dealing with it next season, but it would be unfair to the experience of the audience to tell them right now.

What can you say about that relationship moving forward? Marlowe: I think people will be frustrated until I do the next set of reveals at midseason. My feeling about TV audiences is that they love to be frustrated and then fulfilled. What we’re telling here is a great love story, and great love stories take a long time to resolve. Feelings ebb and flow, relationships are complicated, timing is wrong. I do know where I want to end up with these people. I know what the resolution is between them but there’s a lot of great storytelling between now and then.

Are you concerned with dragging it too long and losing viewer interest? You recently commented about Bones doing just that.Marlowe: When I express some concerns about models of the other shows, it’s when the relationship becomes stagnant. When there is no movement, there is no growth and the characters start to feel like brother and sister because they lose the spark. My goal is to not lose the spark, and I know that’s a challenge when you keep people apart for a long time. Keeping them apart can be frustrating, but I also feel like moments at the end of the swimmer episode are enormously gratifying because of everything that’s come before. The hero’s journey is about going through all sorts of difficulty to obtain your prize and having little victories along the way. My hope is that at the end of the day, it feels like a hero’s journey.

Will there at least be some payoff to Castle’s admission of love?
Marlowe: During Season 4 there will be some payoff to what he said in that moment. It’s not going to necessarily come the way the fans like. And I’m sure some of them will feel like I’ve skirted the issue initially and then come to realize that I’ve dealt with it in an interesting character way. The questions are going to be answered. I think people felt like we dropped the kiss or we dropped the freezing together, but it was always my intention to bring it up as a relationship issue [in the finale]. Hopefully people will be interested to see how we deal with it next year, and how we overcome the argument they’ve had in the middle of this episode. The issue of “Why aren’t we talking about this? Why aren’t we confronting it?”

Is Beckett’s boyfriend Josh (Victor Webster) still a possible obstacle?Marlowe: He’s still out there, and he’s somebody we’re going to have to deal with. He’s an element moving forward and it’ll be interesting to see how that functions.

What’s going to be the driving force in Season 4?Marlowe: There’s going to be a real push and pull between Beckett and Castle. Beckett’s going to want to look into [this new mystery man] and Castle’s going to have very specific reasons why he doesn’t want her to. He’ll end up with a little more information than she has, and he can’t be honest with her about it. It’s going to cause a complexity in their relationship that’s going to be interesting.

‘Castle’ creator Andrew Marlowe on finale shooting: ‘She was not wearing a vest.’

While Castle fans were weeping over Monday night’s season finale (Beckett! Nooooo!), creator Andrew Marlowe was in Hawaii, oblivious to the emotional turmoil he’d just inflicted upon us. To get back at him (kidding!), EW interrupted the executive producer’s much-deserved vacation (not kidding…) to ask some of our — and your — burning questions.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I know you’re sitting sea side right now, but have you seen any of the Internet reaction to the finale?ANDREW MARLOWE: Yeah, I was on Twitter and a lot of the fans were nice enough to leave their thoughts with me on Twitter, so that was very exciting.

I’m not getting the sense that they’re as angry as you thought they might be.
[Laughs] Well, I didn’t know. I knew that I was going to give them something emotionally satisfying, but I also wanted them to be prepared going in that it was going to end on a cliffhanger. But I think that for the ‘shippers, there was some sense of relief that Castle got to say what he wanted to say and that in the argument they were able to put their cards on the table. Then when we get to the final scene, he’s able to admit his feelings for her. So I think there was some really good resolution in that while we had all the other stuff. I think if we didn’t have that resolution, people would have felt a little unsatisfied.

Speaking of that last scene where he says the big ‘I love you,’ Kate’s alive… right?
I think people have to tune in this fall to see.

Well, I’m at least assuming she was wearing a vest …
You don’t expect to get shot at a funeral. I’ll tell you that she was not wearing a vest. I can tell you that, yeah.

So are we going to see Beckett recovery time next season or will we have a time jump when she’s back in action?
I have not fully finished constructing the season premiere episode for [season] 4. There are a lot of moving parts that I’m going to have to deal with. There may be a time cut, but we’ll probably most likely be picking up right after the events of the shooting and dealing with the aftermath. And then a time jump somewhere in the episode.

So, why did you decided to shoot Beckett?
Well, it felt like a natural extension of the storytelling that we’re doing, and this case is the case where Beckett is most vulnerable, and Castle is at his most mature. But it also comes with a complication, and the complication is this: It’s that if Castle hadn’t urged Beckett to look into her mother’s case in episode 10′s first season, none of this would have happened. You know, Montgomery wouldn’t be dead, secrets would still be buried, Beckett’s life wouldn’t be hanging in the balance. So you know, there’s certainly going to be some guilt he’s gotta work through, and with Beckett knowing what’s at stake, this is one case where rationality flies out the window, where she basically goes and runs out into traffic. She can’t help herself. So how that’s all going to resolve next season, we have a really good and interesting angle on it. That’s something that I think fans will be really interested in when they tune in to see how we’re going to conduct things next year.

Is part of that angle dealing with the man who shot Beckett?
Yeah. In a way. But it has much more to do with the Beckett-Castle relationship.

So you said Castle is going to deal with guilt. Will part of that also come from him not being able to save her as he did in the midseason finale?
Mmhmm. Yeah, I think it’s only natural that anybody in that situation, if they aren’t able to do that, would feel that way. Absolutely.

Will this become a more personal fight for Castle now that Beckett was injured?
Well, what I’ll say about that — because I’m trying to keep some things a surprise for early next season — is that those questions are going to figure prominently in how we’re coming back and how we’re defining the next stage of their relationship.

Speaking of important stages: The “I Love you.” Is that going to be ignored next season?
No, it’s not going to be ignored. It’s going to be confronted, but it’s going to be confronted in a very Castle-ish kind of way. The show has a tendency, when it confronts things, not to go head-to-head with something. So we are going to deal with that in storytelling in a way that is really organic to this relationship and to their growth.

You really took on so many issues in this episode — which one of these steps did you consider the biggest?
For me, there were two big ones. The fight in her apartment — but the reason why that was so effective, to me, is that it’s been coming for basically two-and-a-half seasons. [They’ve had] to get to the point where they were both so emotionally raw that Castle could say, “I don’t know what the hell we are.” We’re doing this dance, and I think it’s really refreshing to have them acknowledge the dance and have the two of them interact with each other. And also him getting to the point where he didn’t want to wait ’til it was too late to say what was on his mind. [Even though] he may have been too late.

I was in love with the airport scene. How much was improv and how much of that was in the script? From him holding her against the car, to him mouthing “I’m sorry”…
I have to say that that is one of the great culminations of Will Beall’s great writing and Rob Bowman’s great directing, and two actors who are in excellent from. That was really a culmination of three tremendous elements, and everybody really had a hand in really crafting that moment.The attitude, the point of view, was all written down. The amount of emotion that Stana [Katic] poured into it and Nathan [Fillion]’s reaction to it… a lot of that happened on the day, and it was beautifully shot by the team.

I usually have some sense of composure, but I was, honestly, such a mess! It was shameful.
Good, we did our job. [Laughs]

Do you get emotional reading any of this?
My relationship to it is much different because, you know, I’m there helping to craft those moments, so I knew that we’re hitting the chord. I had that feeling. But my point of view was more how can we elicit the emotion from the scene, how can we really honor people. It was hard to be around for me emotionally when Montgomery’s character got shot. [He was] the first of the character that I created during the pilot who died. So it really did feel like to all of us that there was a significant death in the family, so we really mourned his loss. But the emotions of these moments that you guys are going through are mitigated by the fact that I know what the outcomes are. [Laughs]

Speaking of Montgomery — how long was this in the plan?
We knew for sure in January. We had been toying with the storyline. Will Beall came in with a really great angle on these mythology stories, and we all worked with him to craft this. It was coming at a point where I felt like some of the relationships needed to evolve, and we needed to challenge some of our core family. This was a really interesting way to do that, to help our relationships get to the next level. So it was a confluence of events where it just seemed to make absolute creative sense for the show. And it’s always really difficult because Ruben [Santiago-Hudson]’s been just a tremendous asset, and nothing but an enormous professional for us.

He did an outstanding job on his last scene.
He’s never been better. He is a tremendously talented actor, and he’s also a very gifted emotional actor. I think sometimes, you know, when he’s a guy who people download information into or he’s just giving the facts, it’s really not taking advantage of his enormous strengths as an emotional actor, and this was really an opportunity to have him shine, and boy, did he do a great job.

Next step would be a new boss. What kind of person are you looking for?
Well, that’s something I’m not going to think about until the end of the week. I’m going to relax for a couple of days. We are looking at bringing somebody in who’s going to present a little bit more of a challenge to our characters in the precinct. So we’re looking forward to having somebody show up who helps our characters grow and opens them up in new ways while continuing to make sure that the experience of the show, the Castle experience, remains the same for the fans.

Some readers suggested bringing on a female boss.
Yeah, I certainly would consider that. It actually would be very interesting. Not to get ahead of myself, but it’s something that has been considered, but I haven’t formally landed on anything yet. There are a lot of riches to that, but there are also some surprises in store for the fans.